Alex Freeman has joined La Liga side Villarreal in a transfer from MLS side Orlando City, both clubs confirmed Thursday.

The U.S. men’s national team right back will move for around $4 million with another $3 million in possible add-ons, per multiple reports. He has signed a contract with Villarreal through June 2032.

Orlando City will also retain a sell-on percentage in the event of a future transfer.

Freeman enjoyed a breakout 2025 campaign. The 21-year-old had only made three MLS appearances prior to the season, but he won Orlando’s starting right back role and immediately became one of the top fullbacks in the league.

The right back was named a MLS All-Star, earned a spot on the 2025 MLS Best XI and won the league’s Young Player of the Year award. 

“He showed maturity and commitment at every level, rising from a young prospect to an MLS All-Star and one of the league’s top emerging talents. Watching his development up close has been incredibly rewarding for all of us at the club,’ said Ricardo Moreira, Orlando City general manager and sporting director.

‘We’re proud of everything Alex has accomplished here and wish him continued success as he takes this next step in his professional career.” 

Freeman, the son of former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Antonio Freeman, earned his first USMNT cap in June and quickly became an important player under head coach Mauricio Pochettino.

Freeman made 13 appearances total for the USMNT in 2025, scoring two goals in the team’s 5-1 win over Uruguay on Nov. 19.

He appears to be a good bet to make the World Cup roster, but will need to hit the ground running in Spain to assure he doesn’t fall down the USMNT depth chart.

At Villarreal, Freeman will join a club that currently resides in fourth place in La Liga behind Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. 

Trinity Rodman was determined to get her United States Women’s National Team coach Emma Hayes to celebrate with her. No matter how much Hayes refused, the star forward was determined.

‘She tries to act like she doesn’t like attention. And I told her, I literally said this to her. I was like, ‘You love it. You would do it,” Rodman said at NWSL media day on Thursday. ‘And I know it’s in there.”

That was days before Rodman took Hayes by surprise by hitting the ‘Sexy Dexy’ in front of her after scoring a goal in USA’s 6-0 win against Paraguay on Saturday, Jan. 24.

Her coach refused.

‘I’m 49 years of age,’ Hayes told reporters at the time. ‘There’s no chance I’m doing that!’

But according to Rodman, even assistant coach Denise Reddy agreed in her assessment that despite her public comments, Hayes secretly loved the dance. Sure enough, in the three days between the USWNT’s two friendlies, the coach began to practice her dance moves. Feeling like she was too stiff, she initially enlisted center back Tara Rudd’s help — who then gave Rodman a call.

Rodman was getting her nails done when she heard from Rudd.

‘I’ll be right there,’ she remembers telling her teammate.

Then on Tuesday, Jan. 27, Rodman got the ball on the wing, entered the box, side-stepped a Chile defender and fired a shot into the net just past the outstretched arms of the diving goalkeeper to put USA up 5-0. She ran over to the sideline again. And this time, Hayes joined in on the celebration.

‘Game day, I was like, ‘If you don’t do it, it’s gonna be an issue,” Rodman said. ‘And then she did it, and she had a great time.’

• Tennessee’s Attorney General, who helped sue the NCAA to allow unlimited annual transfers, now calls the unrestricted portal a ‘train wreck.’
• The lawsuit, joined by other states, successfully argued that NCAA transfer restrictions illegally limited athletes’ earning potential.
• Despite the ensuing chaos, the attorney general does not regret the lawsuit, stating it was necessary to dismantle an illegal system.

One of the state government officials who sued the NCAA and won unlimited annual transfers for college athletes now calls the unrestricted transfer portal a “train wreck” and says it is “sucking the life out of college sports.”

“I think the portal is probably the single biggest problem that needs to be solved…” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told USA TODAY Sports. “The portal is just sucking the life out of college sports and putting student-athletes in a bad position. And if there is one change in the immediate future that needs to happen, it’s fixing the portal.”

Skrmetti effectively created this new system of unlimited annual player transfers, along with the attorneys general of several other states. They filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA in December 2023 seeking to eliminate rules that restricted undergraduate players from transferring to a new school more than once in their college careers.

They later were joined by the federal justice department before winning a settlement with the NCAA in 2024 that gave Division I athletes more freedom of movement than athletes have in the NFL, NBA or other pro sports.

Bedlam has ensued as a result. In one case, a prominent head coach quit over it.  In another case, a football player is about to join his seventh college in seven years. In another, a university sued its own quarterback to prevent him from leaving for another school.

But the Tennessee attorney general doesn’t regret it

Skrmetti views the transfer restriction he helped eliminate as an illegal rule that unfairly prevented players from maximizing their earnings after finally being allowed to make money for their names, images and likenesses (NIL). He said that old system needed to be torn down because it illegally restricted player compensation and freedom. The mess that’s ensued as a result is not the responsibility of the state attorneys general who sued to remove the rule, according to him. He said building a new system with better rules that can withstand legal scrutiny is up to college sports leaders and perhaps the U.S. Congress.

“It’s not that the NCAA got sued by states. It’s that the NCAA was behaving illegally,” Skrmetti said. “And so just like with the NIL stuff,  it was going to happen, like somebody was going to push back. And the point of the litigation is not to carve in stone the Wild West. It’s to get conclusive rulings that the old ways are broken, and it’s time to start creating what the next college sports regime looks like.”

Portal is The Wild West without transfer restrictions

Skrmetti said the transition to a new system to replace the old one is “taking way longer than it should.” In the meantime, he called the current transfer system “just awful.” Some examples show what’s happened after the old rule was eliminated:

∎ One player, quarterback TJ Finley, will be playing for his seventh school since his freshman year in 2020. Finley is headed to Incarnate Word after previous stops at LSU, Auburn, Texas State, Tulane, Western Kentucky and Georgia State.

∎ ESPN reported more than 6,500 Division I football players entered the transfer portal this year from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16, virtually all of them looking for more playing time, more money or a bigger spotlight. More than 10,500 combined entered the portal in Division I, II and III, according to NCAA.com. In Division I alone, that’s enough to create 62 new teams of 105 players each. (The NCAA declined to confirm any numbers but said Division I player volume in the transfer portal was down from the year before.)

∎ Some schools did create mostly all-new teams by flipping their rosters and starting over with transfer players. Colorado football coach Deion Sanders flipped his roster again with 47 new incoming transfer players including non-scholarship players, offsetting more than 35  Colorado players who entered the transfer portal to leave the team after a 3-9 season in 2025. New Oklahoma State football coach Eric Morris took more than 50 new transfers while more than 60 transferred out.

∎ Like Sanders, some coaches are using the transfer portal as a pro-style waiver wire to nudge certain players off the team, overtly or not. Indiana running back Roman Hemby said he was pushed into the portal at Maryland by coach Mike Locksley.

∎ The head coach at Kansas State, Chris Klieman, quit because of the chaos at age 58, telling The Mercury in Manhattan, Kansas, he was at his “wits’ end” with the roster upheaval caused by unlimited transfers.

∎ Duke University recently sued its own quarterback, Darian Mensah, after he said he was transferring out. That’s because Duke had a contract with Mensah through Dec. 31, 2026 and wanted to prevent him from joining another school after he previously transferred from Tulane. The two sides recently reached a settlement.

High school recruits getting squeezed out by transfer portal?

The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents also recently expressed concern about opportunities for local high school recruits as Sanders fills most of his roster with transfers from out of state instead. The board wanted assurances from Colorado’s new athletic director, Fernando Lovo, he would improve relations with high schools in the state.

Meanwhile, the search for playing time continues for some transfer players every year while they’re supposed to be making progress toward a college degree. For example, quarterback Walter Taylor III started at Vanderbilt in 2022, transferred to Colorado for 2024, moved to Ball State in 2025 and now is back at Vanderbilt at a different position in 2026 — tight end. He’s been searching for playing time but hasn’t appeared in a game since he left Vanderbilt the first time.

“When you combine unlimited transfers with NIL and zero enforcement, you create instability,” said former Penn State tight end Adam Breneman, co-founder The College Sports Company. “A player moving to seven schools is not healthy for college football, roster building, locker rooms, or player development. There has to be a middle ground where athletes have freedom, but also accountability, especially now that many are being paid.”

Other state attorneys general no longer bragging?

The attorneys general bragged about their legal victory in press releases May 30, 2024. The news release from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost came with a headline that said, “AG Yost and Allies Score Major Win for College Athletes.”

“This long-term change is exactly what we set out to accomplish,” Yost said in that 2024 release about unrestricted transfers.

But now when asked about the consequences of that action, none of them discussed it except Skrmetti. Yost’s press office didn’t respond to three detailed emails and a phone call since Jan. 12. New York’s attorney general office didn’t want to talk about it on the record. The federal Justice Department declined comment.

The office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser recommended USA TODAY Sports contact the attorney general offices in Ohio and Tennessee with questions about the fallout because they “were the lead states on this litigation and settlement.”

USA TODAY Sports contacted the press offices of all seven original plaintiffs in the case: the then-attorney generals of Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. USA TODAY Sports also contacted the offices of attorneys general who joined the case later — Mississippi, Virginia, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., plus the federal Justice Department. USA TODAY Sports e-mailed each office at least twice since Jan. 12 and followed up with phone calls, each explaining the topic of inquiry in detail.

Only Skrmetti agreed to an interview.

“Tearing things down is sometimes necessary,” Skrmetti said. “But that’s never the end of the story. This is the time when we need to be building what comes next. And I don’t think we want state political figures doing that through litigation. I think it really needs to be a conversation between the coaches, the student-athletes, the conferences, the universities, the NCAA leadership, everybody who’s involved in this.”

Did education get lost in NCAA argument?

NCAA rules that previously restricted players from transferring once were based on promoting education.

Before 2021, NCAA rules generally prohibited undergraduate players from transferring at all without first sitting out a season at their new school — unless they played sports besides football, basketball, baseball and men’s hockey. The NCAA said this was designed to help transfers catch up academically after transferring in with credits that might not be accepted at their new school.

In 2006, players who graduated college also were allowed to transfer without sitting out a year if they still had NCAA eligibility — a way to reward those who already graduated. The NCAA then further eased transfer restrictions in 2021 by allowing players to transfer one time without sitting out a year.

“The academic ties to college sports are being eroded by a deluge of lawsuits in both state and federal courts,” the NCAA said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “In some cases, student-athletes are seeking eighth years of collegiate eligibility — despite the fact that an average student completes their undergraduate degree in five years or fewer. The NCAA’s transfer rules were challenged by several state attorneys general, usually in service of one student-athlete on one team at one university in their state.”

The West Virginia battleground

One example of how an attorney general got involved and used the case to score points with local fans came in West Virginia. In 2023, men’s basketball player RaeQuan Battle wanted to transfer from Montana State to West Virginia and play right away. But he had already transferred once, from Washington to Montana State, leading to his request being rejected by the NCAA.

Then-West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey got involved by writing a letter to the NCAA on Battle’s behalf and then joining the lawsuit to strike down the transfer restriction, saying it unfairly restrained athletes’ ability to maximize their economic opportunities after the NCAA finally allowed players to earn NIL money in 2021.

The NCAA eventually decided to relent and settle the case after U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey in West Virginia issued a preliminary injunction against the NCAA at the states’ request in December 2023.

“WVU took a chance on RaeQuan Battle, who faced a disadvantage by being restricted by the Transfer Eligibility Rule,” the judge noted in his ruling.

Morrisey is now the governor of West Virginia after being elected in November 2024.

Will there ever be new NCAA transfer rules?

There’s no going back now, not without Congressional intervention or massive change that deems athletes as employees who can form a union to collectively bargain for a different system. But why would athletes want the system to change given how much freedom and leverage they currently have?

“Re-imposing restrictions at the NCAA level would be an antitrust violation,” said Mit Winter, an attorney specializing in NIL issues and a former basketball player at William & Mary.

The notion of making or enforcing rules to promote college education also now might seem quaint, given the amount of money coursing through the system to coaches, facilities and now players.

“The athletes are recruited to play their sport and their life is completely built around their sport,” Winter told USA TODAY Sports. “So to me, the frequent movement we see now is a natural occurrence of what college athletics really is at the highest level: pro sports. And the athletes didn’t bring this about. The schools did by deciding their sports teams are going to be marketing and entertainment vehicles for the universities instead of just another part of the educational experience.”

Skrmetti said it’s up to college sports leaders and/or Congress to build a better system in place of the “illegal” rule he helped knock down.

“There has to be something that can survive a lawsuit but that resolves this so that people can get back to enjoying college sports and not wonder, you know, what constellation of players they are going to be looking at in their team’s uniform next year,” Skrmetti said.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Jordan Chiles is one step closer to keeping her Olympic bronze medal.

The highest court in Switzerland handed Chiles a key legal victory, announcing Thursday, Jan. 29, that it had granted part of her appeal and was kicking her case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for reconsideration. It cited video that shows Chiles’ coach making an inquiry over her score within the allotted time.

‘In the highly exceptional circumstances of the case in question, it considers that there is a likelihood for the audio-visual recording of the final on 5 August 2024 to lead to a modification of the contested award in favour of the applicants, since the CAS could consider, in the light of this audio-visual sequence, that the verbal inquiry made on behalf of Jordan Chiles had been made before the expiry of the regulatory one-minute time limit,’ the Swiss Federal Tribunal said in a statement announcing the decision, which was issued Jan. 23.

The tribunal rejected Chiles’ appeal over the independence of the head of the arbitration panel, who had done work for the Romanian government. It also rejected the appeal by a Romanian gymnast of an out-of-bounds decision, saying it was not reviewable.

Jordan Chiles’ attorney: ‘Righted a wrong’

Maurice Suh, the U.S.-based attorney for Chiles, said the gymnast appreciates the opportunity for a new hearing and will fight ‘vigorously’ to keep her medal.

‘We are delighted that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has righted a wrong and given Jordan the chance she deserves to reclaim her bronze medal,’ Suh said in a statement. ‘As the Court recognized, there is ‘conclusive’ video evidence that Jordan was the rightful winner of the bronze medal. 

‘We also appreciate the Court’s recognition that ‘extraordinary time pressure’ and notification defects prevented Jordan from presenting this important evidence in August 2024,’ Suh added. ‘We appreciate that Jordan will receive a full and fair opportunity to defend her bronze medal.’

USA Gymnastics supports Chiles

USA Gymnastics, which had submitted evidence and statements on Chiles’ behalf through the appeals process, said it looks forward to the gymnast getting a ‘fair’ hearing.

‘We are pleased the Swiss Federal Supreme Court recognized the flaws in the initial process and that Jordan’s case can now be heard inclusive of all relevant evidence,’ the federation said in a statement. ‘We look forward to a fair arbitration that includes the clear evidence proving the inquiry into Jordan’s score was filed well within 1 minute as required by FIG rules.’

USOPC praises Childs

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee echoed Suh and USA Gymnastics’ appreciation for the Swiss tribunal recognizing that Chiles wasn’t given a full opportunity to defend herself.

It also praised the gymnast, who was subjected to vicious and racist attacks online in the days after competition.

‘Jordan has handled this movement with strenghth and professionalism, and we remain firmly behind her as she continues to pursue the result she earned,’ the USOPC said in a statement.

No date for new CAS hearing yet 

It’s not clear when CAS will hold a new hearing, with a spokesperson saying it was ‘too soon’ to know a date.

But CAS did say in a statement that it accepted the tribunal’s ruling that the video evidence ‘justifies’ a new hearing.

‘Following the SFT decision, CAS can now ensure a thorough judicial review of the new evidence that has since been made available,’ CAS said in its statement.

Case has dragged on for 18 months

The ruling brings Chiles closer to resolving the messy, error-filled dispute that initially resulted in the American being stripped of her bronze medal from the floor exercise on the last day of the Paris Olympics.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation had claimed that Chiles’ scoring inquiry had been filed too late, but video footage discovered after CAS’ initial ruling shows that her coach, Cecile Landi, had made the inquiry well within the 60 seconds allowed. CAS declined to reconsider its decision upon receiving the video, which prompted Chiles, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to take the matter to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

Following the Swiss court’s decision, the final order of finish on the floor exercise will once again be in the hands of CAS.

Timing of inquiry key to case

The decision to strip Chiles’ of her medal caused an international furor that overshadowed the end of the Games, in large part because it involved a dispute over the minutiae of gymnastics rules rather than any mistake or wrongdoing by Chiles − or, for that matter, any of the other gymnasts involved.

Unlike other cases of medal reallocation, which often follow doping or cheating violations, this case hinged on an apparent error by officials with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which oversees the sport.

Chiles initially finished fifth in the floor exercise final on Aug. 5 with a score of 13.666, leaving her behind Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea. (The pair had each scored 13.7, but Barbosu has placed higher because of a better execution score.)

But Landi, who was Chiles’ personal coach in addition to being the U.S. coach in Paris, appealed her difficulty score, arguing Chiles had not been given full credit for a leap called a tour jete. A review panel on site agreed, and the additional 0.100 elevated the American ahead of both Romanians into third place. Romania then appealed to CAS the next day, challenging the timing of Chiles’ appeal.

Data from Omega, the official timing system, showed Chiles’ inquiry had been registered four seconds too late, and CAS used that as the basis for its first decision. But Chiles’ lawyers have pointed out that the verbal inquiry would have had to have been made at least a few seconds before an official entered it into the timing system. The FIG acknowledged during the CAS hearing that it had not put safeguards in place so officials would immediately know whether verbal appeals were submitted on time or late.

USA Gymnastics said on Aug. 11, 2024, the day after the first CAS ruling, that it had obtained footage showing Landi made the first verbal inquiry 47 seconds, within the 60 seconds allotted. But CAS said it could not accept evidence after the fact.

Though CAS ordered the FIG to re-order the results to what they were before Chiles’ appeal, it blasted the federation, both for its ineptitude and the grief Chiles and the Romanians endured.

‘If the Panel had been in a position to apply equitable principles, it would surely have attributed a bronze medal to all three gymnasts in view of their performance, good faith and the injustice and pain to which they have been subjected,’ according to the CAS decision, released Aug. 14.

‘The Panel expresses the hope that the FIG will draw the consequences of this case, in relation to these three extraordinary Athletes and also for other Athletes and their supporting personnel, in the future, so that this never happens again.’

The IOC accepted the re-ordered results and said Chiles’ medal should be reallocated. Romania then awarded Barbosu a bronze medal Aug. 16.

That was never going to be the end of it, however. The Americans had vowed to pursue the case all the way to the Swiss Federal Tribunal on behalf of Chiles, knowing she and Landi had not done anything wrong.

Notification errors were CAS’ fault

In addition to their evidence showing the inquiry had been submitted in time, and the unfairness for punishing Chiles for the FIG’s error, the Americans cited process errors by CAS. They argued that the arbitration panel had sent emails to the wrong parties for three days after Romania had filed its appeal. That meant Chiles and U.S. officials had less than 24 hours to read all the documents in the case, analyze them, craft a response and prepare for the hearing.

In its statement, Suh’s office said the Swiss Federal Tribunal recognized that ‘extraordinary time pressure’ was a factor in why Chiles didn’t submit the video evidence at the hearing. The tribunal decided those notification errors were CAS’ fault, Suh’s office said, and “caused an imbalance between the parties’ in the case.

It is a scourge that has reemerged throughout Tony Gonzalez’s life, that continues bedeviling his family, yet he is grateful for the chance to take some small action against it.

Prostate cancer claimed Gonzalez’s grandfather in 1981, when he was barely a kindergartener, and also took the life of his uncle only a couple years after Gonzalez was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Now, another uncle faces a similar battle with the disease.

At 49, Gonzalez has been getting screened for several years, particularly given his family history. Now, he is all too eager to amplify the message behind a blood test that can aid in early detection of prostate cancer without the traditionally invasive screening previous generations endured.

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Gonzalez, along with a half-dozen other tight ends and Super Bowl-winning coach and prostate cancer survivor Bruce Arians appear in “Relax Your Tight End,” a Novartis Super Bowl advertisement that urges early screening and use of the new blood test.

Gonzalez, along with retired luminaries like Rob Gronkowski and Greg Olsen and two-time All-Pro George Kittle, are shown in various stages of repose, floating in a pool or frozen in a yoga pose, their typically keyed-up personalities soothed by the notion of a less-invasive prostate cancer screening at their disposal.

It is a light touch applied to a subject that’s been far too heavy for Gonzalez.

“It’s something that’s personal to me,” Gonzalez tells USA TODAY Sports in a video interview. “It runs in my family. And obviously I’m somebody at risk for it. I’ve teamed up with them mainly because of that – to get the word out and let people know about early detection, that there’s a better way than what it used to be.

“A blood test is a better way than getting it done the old way. I’ve had it done the old way and I think it’s great to get the word out there about early detection and the survival rate that goes along with that.”

Roughly one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, but early detection produces a more than 99% five-year survival rate. The PSA test measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen in the blood, according to the Mayo Clinic.

While it can detect high levels of PSA, the blood test does not provide precise diagnostic information on the prostate. An elevated level of PSA, though, could prompt a doctor to order further testing or a biopsy.

Gonzalez views it as an easier first step to prevention than the more common digital rectum examination.

“So much easier,” says Gonzalez. “I was in that camp who had it done the old way. And it’s not very comfortable. It’s just another way to test for it, and it’s just a simple blood test.

“It lets you take a sigh. A lot of men don’t do it because of the way it’s been tested before. It’s an alternative to the old test and it’s much easier than the old test.”

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Arians, 73, narrates the spot, noting he was around to coach Gronkowski and the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title because his 2007 prostate cancer was diagnosed early in the process. Arians also had cancerous cells removed from his nose in 2013, and 2017 surgery to remove a cancerous spot on a kidney.

Gonzalez ranks third in NFL history in receptions (1,325), sixth in receiving yards (15,127) and ninth in touchdown catches (111). Though he never played for Arians, Gonzalez, a 14-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro, crossed paths with Arians at myriad league events and calls the coach “a hoot and a fun guy, who obviously represents us well.”

The spot also curates almost every Canton-worthy tight end not named Travis Kelce over the years in one place.

“The cultural phenomenon of tight ends over the years – I’ve always said, man, there’s no better example of a football player than a tight end,” says Gonzalez. “You get to block. You get to run the ball. You’re so diversified when you’re on that field and it’s so cool.

“Mike Ditka. Shannon Sharpe. You got Greg Olsen. Travis. Kittle. Huge personalities, media-type people, people who act. It’s all over the board. And I always wonder, ‘Why is that?’ Except maybe the quarterback position you don’t see that.

“And I think maybe it’s because we do everything.”

That includes Gonzalez, part of the high-energy pre- and postgame crew on Amazon’s Thursdayfootball broadcasts. He gleans great joy as the old head alongside Andrew Whitworth, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick and host Charissa Thompson – “The glue that keeps us all together,” he says – and calls Wednesdays through Fridays the highlights of his week.

Gonzalez maintains contact with old Chiefs and Falcons teammates via two massive group texts, and as he nears his 50^th birthday, has discovered the tenor of the chats can turn more serious.

“This is something we talk about,” he says of prostate caoncer. “’Did you get tested? Did you do this?’

“It’s a lot more talked-about subject when you get into the age of retired players.”